How Barcelona benefit from West Ham confirming permanent Jean-Clair Todibo transfer

West Ham United have announced the permanent arrival of defender Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice.

The 25-year-old moved to the London Stadium last summer on an initial season-long loan deal and played 29 times in total across all competitions during the 2024-25 season.

Todibo started 12 of the Hammers’ final 13 Premier League games, including victories over Arsenal and Manchester United, after seeing the middle of his campaign interrupted by injuries.

West Ham have now confirmed that the Frenchman will officially join to the club on July 1 after exercising their option to make the transfer permanent for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £32.8m (€39m).

The Hammers have also confirmed that Evan Ferguson and Carlos Soler will return to their respective parent clubs, Brighton & Hove Albion and Paris Saint-Germain, following the end of their loan spells.

The transfer of Todibo is of particular interest to Barcelona, who will pocket around €7.8m (£6.6m) thanks to a 20% sell-on clause negotiated when they sold the defender to Nice in 2021.

Barca to receive welcome financial boost after Todibo transfer

Todibo joined Barca from French outfit Toulouse in 2019 as a promising 18-year-old, but he found it difficult to break into the first team and was sent out on loan to Schalke 04 and Benfica, before making 136 appearances for Nice over a three-and-a-half-year period.

In total, Barcelona have earned €16.3m (£13.7m) from Todibo, including the €8.5m they received from Nice in 2021 and the aforementioned sell-on clause triggered following his permanent switch to West Ham.

Amidst well-documented financial problems, this comes as a welcome boost for the Catalan giants, who also gained €6m (£5m) from the sale of Alex Valle from Como earlier this week.

While the La Liga champions would like to strengthen Hansi Flick’s squad this summer, president Joan Laporta has suggested that the club are prioritising new contracts for key players as they endeavour to avoid running the risk of losing star names for free.

Teenage sensation Lamine Yamal penned a new long-term contract at the end of last month, while Laporta has confirmed that negotiations to extend the deals of Raphinha, Inigo Martinez and Wojciech Szczesny “are in the final stages”.

Barca are also keen to extend Frenkie de Jong’s contract which is due to expire in June 2026 along with Robert Lewandowski, Eric Garcia, Andreas Christensen, Hector Fort, Marc Bernal, Pablo Torre and Inaki Pena.

Written by
Oliver Thomas